Preview 1 - Thanksgiving Visitors

Wild turkeys in our side yard….just in time for Thanksgiving

I was looking out the kitchen window this morning and spotted an unusually large bird lurking around our feeders. I realized that we were being visited by a beautiful hen turkey, but of course my camera was in the office downstairs. I bolted down the steps and grabbed my Nikon Z8 with the 160-600mm lens and quietly exited through the garage door. As I crept around the side of the house, I was amazed to see not the lone hen that I had spotted but rather a group of 6. They continued to graze on the seed that had spilled from the feeders pretty much oblivious to my presence. I took a fair number of shots before stealing away, leaving them to their breakfast in peace. Apparently, these birds were not familiar with the American Thanksgiving Dinner traditions.

This hen wanted to steal the show from the rest of her siblings.

Tech Tip - Another basic photograph composition tip…..don’t be locked into conventional cropping formats. Virtually all photo editing programs will give you the option to freeform crop. Using unconstrained cropping, you will be able to edit out unwanted distractions and highlight the subject(s) you want the viewer to experience. While there are some photographers out there who believe that cropping is “cheating”, I feel it is simply another means of artistic expression. If you are not altering your image to “falsify” what you actually saw, then I say go for it!